Tuesday 31 March 2015

Back From Beyond - Part IV


Hopefully, the party of Investigators will have made the connexion between Dr. Windrush of the ASPR and the mysterious goings-on in Elsa’s basement. By this stage they might well wish to beard the good Doctor in his den and ask for an explanation.

A Call Upon The ASPR...

Whatever time of day that the group decides to do this, it starts to rain as they make their way there – there isn’t anything pertinent about this; it’s just for atmosphere.

The current address for the ASPR is rooms 15 and 16 on the 11th floor at 44 East 23rd Street. When the party arrives, the storm is in full swing: the 11th floor is largely deserted, other suites being occupied by a legal firm, a low-scale publisher’s, and a private detective’s offices. Rain lashes the windows on this level and the light is dim and Noir-ish. As the party approaches, they notice the door to the ASPR offices is open and there are upraised voices coming from within. A successful Listen Roll will determine the following conversation:

[Unknown Male Voice] ‘What happened, Windrush? I thought your people were going to sweep this Sheridan mess away’

[Windrush] ‘Those weren’t our people...’

[UMV] ‘I’m sorry? “Not your people”? Then who were they, Windrush?’

[W] ‘Just a bunch of amateurs! You have to understand, we have a reputation to protect. I thought if I brought these other people in, it would give us some distance...’

[UMV] ‘I don’t give a damn about your reputation, Windrush. I asked for your people to make this go away. A simple fix. Instead, you’ve brought in outsiders and made the situation worse...’

[W] ‘I’m sorry! I thought I was helping both our causes this way...!’

[UMV] ‘“Sorry” doesn’t help anyone Windrush. Now there are too many people who know what’s going on and that’s a security headache I don’t need. Let me introduce you my colleague – Mr. Grey.’

[W] ‘Oh my God! No! No! NO...!’

(It would be politic of the Investigators to storm in about now...)

The scene that greets them is grotesque and bizarre. Dr. Windrush has been thrown back across his desk; looming over him is a figure in a trench coat and hat, grey of skin, long of limb and with huge almond-shaped black eyes. In its uplifted hand is a moving, jelly-like blob, sprouting quills like a demented sea-urchin and shimmering in constantly-changing colours: the light from this object plays over Windrush’s terrified face. The party needs to make SAN Rolls – 0/1D2. The sound of a gun cocking draws the party’s attention from this tableau to a darkened corner of the room. Stepping forward is the moustachioed man from the Waldorf Astoria.

‘Welcome’ he says, covering the party with his pistol, ‘Mr. Grey here has very sharp ears and heard you coming. I hope that you had time to listen in and catch up – I do hate having to repeat myself.’

This is Government agent Josiah Masterson.





Josiah Masterson - Shady G-man


STR: 12
CON: 11
SIZ: 10
INT: 14
Idea: 70%
EDU: 18
Know: 90%
POW: 15
Luck: 75%
DEX: 12
APP: 15
Move: 7
SAN: 65
HP: 11

Weapons: .45 Revolver 50%, 1D10
Average Damage Bonus: +0
Spells: None
Skills: Hide 55%; Sneak 60%; Govt. Bureaucracy 70%;
SAN Loss: it costs no SAN to see Josiah Masterson

Because he’s a bad guy he now gets to monologue: Agent Masterson explains that the government had become very excited by the proposed research of Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, but unfortunately that fellow had gone mad and tried to kill his best friend with the device, an act which led to his death and the machine’s partial destruction. The Agency (he doesn’t specify which) managed to re-create the device to a serviceable level, and contacted entities from beyond, a representative of which is Mr. Grey. He has been helping the humans refine their technology and the results were encouraging until Elsa began talking about the things which she had inadvertently seen. Masterson called in the ASPR to de-bunk her article but instead of just doing as he was told, Windrush complicated things by bringing in the party for his own selfish ends. Now Masterson has a problem to clean up.

Opening A Can Of Wooptar!

While Masterson is  dishing the dirt, lightning flashes several times and, as it does so, the room is thrown into garish brightness and heavy shadow. In the aftermath (and thunder) the walls and furniture of the room start to fade, becoming see-through and hazy. The party will recognise the effect, however the strange misty light which they saw at Elsa’s place is absent. The players may exclaim that Masterson has brought the machine here!

‘Oh no, not I,’ he smiles, ‘their technology (nods to Mr. Grey) is vastly dissimilar to our own and works much better, without all of the side-effects which plague our device. Mr. Grey you see, has his own machine.’

Mr. Grey now brandishes the spiky blob in his hand and utters a strange ululation. A hot wind like the inside of an oven washes into the room and a demonic chittering is heard. The light in the office has turned a coppery gold and strange fan-like growths can be seen all around, dotting what seems to be a wide plain spreading in all directions beneath a grotesquely large sun.

Suddenly the party is attacked from all sides! By Wooptars!


“Wooptars”

STR: 5-6
CON: 7
SIZ: 2
INT: 7
Idea: 35%
POW: 10-11
Luck: 50-55%
DEX: 20
Move: 8
SAN: n/a
HP: 5

Weapons: Bite 30%, 1D6+db; Tail Spike 20%, 1D3+POT 5 Poison
Average Damage Bonus: -1D6
Spells: None
Skills: Climb 70%; Dodge 50%; Hide 70%; Sneak 60%; Spot Hidden 75%
SAN Loss: it costs 0/1D3 to see a “Wooptar”

Wooptars are the denizens of a hot, far-distant planet, but not Mercury. Elsa described them as seemingly harmless but, in fact, they are quite deadly little buggers. They have a nasty bite and can paralyse large prey with their pointy tails. Fortunately, they are not bright, and they do not use tactics or work together – they favour bravado and single combat. Because they are so quick, they get two attacks per round – two bites, two tail spikes, or one of each – one at the beginning and one at the end of each combat round.

Despite a superficial resemblance to chameleons, they do not change colour or behave in any way like those reptiles. They are very keen-sighted however, and extremely difficult to surprise.

*****

Figure on there being two or three of these critters for every Investigator. Remember that the players are restricted by the dimensions and furniture of the office, while the Wooptars are not so confined. If the party seems to be getting the upper hand too easily, throw an extra Wooptar in per character – there are tons of these guys around!

Mr. Grey seems Hell-bent on taking revenge on Dr. Windrush. While the Investigators try to make headway against the aliens, he draws forth his Electric Gun and attempts to use it on the incapacitated doctor. This will either kill Windrush or just knock him out. After this, Grey will cross over to Masterson and grab him; he will then dimensionally shift himself and the agent away, leaving the Wooptar-world to fade away in their wake. Players will have to make Spot Hidden Rolls during the melee to try and thwart these plans.

“Mr. Grey” – Surgically-Altered Mi-Go

STR: 11
CON: 11
SIZ: 10
INT: 13
Idea: 65%
POW: 13
Luck: 65%
DEX: 14
Move: 7
SAN: n/a
HP: 11

Weapons: Electric Gun: 1D10+Special
Armour: none, but the extra-terrene body causes all Impaling weapons to do minimum possible damage.
Average Damage Bonus: +0
Spells: None
Skills: Hide 15%; Sneak 15%; +20% to all Sciences
SAN Loss: it costs 0/1D2 to see “Mr. Grey” outside of his coat-and-hat disguise

By the 1950s, the Mi-Go will have perfected this form of body modification and will have created a backstory to go with it that will convince the humans who encounter them of their status as bona fide space aliens; most of those humans will work for shady government departments. In time Delta Green will have seen through this smokescreen and will have set about eliminating the “Alien Grey” threat and exposing it for what it is.

For now, the players should have a chuckle at the in-joke but should resist using any meta-knowledge of UFOlogy to affect play. Like other Mi-Go, Mr. Grey cannot be photographed and will deliquesce if killed. He communicates semi-telepathically to those around him in a strange buzzing voice. His Electric Gun is standard issue: it cannot be used by humans unless they modify it by making two Electrical Repair Rolls on it, and even then it will only work if they roll a 1 or 2 on 1D6 when using it. His phase-shifting device – far superior to Crawford Tillinghast’s design – is the sparkling sea-urchin thing which he carries in his hand. Being superior alien-tech, it has 20 HPs and, like a Mi-Go, takes only minimal damage from Impaling weapons.

*****

Grey will simply move to the next part of his plan if stopped from accomplishing any individual step: if someone stops him killing Windrush, he will move to Masterson; if he is prevented from grabbing Masterson, he will dimensionally shift. If he cannot dimensionally shift, he will hurl himself at the window and fall to the pavement 11 storeys below. By the time anyone can get down there to check on him, he will have dissolved into a dissipating puddle of goo.

Once Grey is dead or has escaped to another dimension, the situation will quickly become resolved: the party will be free of Wooptars and left in the offices of the ASPR on a rainy night; Dr. Windrush will be there, either alive or dead, and Masterson will be there too, if he hasn’t vanished with Mr. Grey. Once Masterson is disarmed, or wounded, he will quickly capitulate.

The Wrap-Up...

The conclusion is up to the players. There is no remaining evidence to prove their adventure to outside parties, and there are possibly dead bodies to explain (not to mention wounded party members). If the players decide to fake a break-in with Masterson as the criminal, he will smile and play along: if anyone asks him why he isn’t worried about this, he shrugs and says that he’ll make bail before they slam the cell door – he’s too important a player as far as his ongoing mission is concerned. If this plan is carried out by the party, Masterson is as good as his word: before the night is over, he vanishes mysteriously from his gaol cell and only the party will have any idea how he managed to accomplish this.

Windrush, if he is still alive, will have some explaining to do to the Investigators and they will no doubt make him eat humble pie. In recompense, he will pay for any reasonable damages, or loss, which the party may have incurred and will also sign them up as lifetime members of the ASPR.

Finally, Elsa Sheridan has probably seen too much to return to her workaday life. The players may be keen to take her onboard as a new character or, if she has formed a romantic attachment with a party member, she may become a regular NPC for the group. If she has unluckily died as part of these shenanigans, then the party may resolve to avenge her.

Rewards

Discovering the conspiracy: +1D10 SAN
Elsa dies! -2D8 SAN
Capturing Masterson (however momentarily): +1D4 SAN

*****

Notes:

This is an example of what random pieces of information viewed through Cthulhu Mythos goggles can generate. I discovered the article on Elsa Sheridan in “The Fortean Times” magazine (FT322, January 2015) and realised that two of her critters (the Martian and the Uranian) bore mild resemblances to some Mythos monsters. Thereafter, I simply tied the report into a backdated re-reading of Lovecraft’s “From Beyond” (1934), did some research about 1920’s New York, and the rest is (pseudo)history. Keepers attempting to run this should definitely read “From Beyond” before launching ahead (it’s very short!).

I no longer have a roleplaying group that I can run this sort of thing for, so this is a completely un-playtested scenario. If anyone out there would like to run it – it’s designed to fill a short gap between larger stories in an ongoing campaign – please feel free to do so. Then, if you have any thoughts about it, you might like to drop me a note in the comments below. Enjoy!

Back From Beyond - Part III


With the walls of the apartment fading from view around them and something else becoming visible instead, the party of Investigators may wish to make some SAN Rolls – 1/1D4.

From out in the distance on all sides, the party will see swirling shapes, like tall saplings or very long grass waving in a breeze. As they move through the apartment, they notice that they are starting to feel somewhat weightless and that the air has become incredibly dense, to the point where they struggle to move through it. In fact, it’s as if they are underwater. They cannot “swim” through the air, but jumping results in slow movement with an decreased range and a slow descent.

Should any Investigator in Elsa’s bedroom assume that she is the cause of all this and try to waken her, they will approach in time to hear her murmur the word “swimp” and languidly point towards the foot of her bed. Simultaneously an enormous roar from that direction will startle them into turning:

Barrelling out of the darkness beyond the walls, a gigantic fish-like creature emerges, with its pectoral “fins” raised and maw gaping. Just as it seems to be about to attack the Investigator, a bright flash illuminates the mist-obscured lines of the telegraph wires and the El tracks and the creature screams and rears back, flitting instantly back into the darkness. However, having seen this beast, the Investigator can now make out many more similar shapes lurking in the shadows on all sides.

Still sleeping, Elsa will smile and murmur, “Why, how do you do Mr. Swimp! Lovely to see you again also!” The Investigator should make a SAN Roll: 0/1d10.

Waking Elsa will result in nothing happening to rectify the situation. She will be startled into consciousness but the effects described will not abate. Tellingly, Elsa becomes wide-eyed and scared also, as if this is the first time that she has seen these phenomena (it is). The party should be made aware that their own reality has become superimposed upon another, stranger one; that the solid objects of their world are now barely visible and apparently insubstantial, while the objects and creatures from beyond are not only solid but very deadly. Strangely (and perversely) the party members are still limited by the boundaries of their home dimension: they cannot pass through walls, furniture, or doors, although they can see through them.

Ideally, the party should try to re-group: obviously something weird is happening and they need to get to the bottom of it. It is important to ascertain where in the apartment they convene, as some areas are safe while others are hazardous to their health. Any Investigator having seen the Swimp being forestalled by the mist-enshrouded telegraph wires and train tracks can make an Idea Roll to learn that something at that point was acting as a barrier, preventing the creature’s attack (if they haven’t worked this out already). What the party may now guess at, is the fact that Elsa’s bedroom is surrounded by a wall of metal fixtures and objects that produce this misty effect: the telegraph lines, the train tracks, the rear fire escape, the pneumatic tubes, the bathroom and kitchen pipes; the front fire escape, the ice-box, the stove and the chimney flue. The mist effect creates a barrier, but it’s an imperfect one: the area it covers is like a large doughnut in shape. Anything descending from directly above, or from below, has access to the centre of the flat: to be safe, one has to be inside the compass of the mist circle and close to the perimeter.


And just to underscore things, the closet and the entry to the apartment are absolutely not protected: the Swimps will begin to test the extent of the barrier, and they will soon discover that they can wriggle into the apartment from this approach. Therefore, fleeing the apartment, or hiding in the “safety” of the cupboard, are counterproductive activities.


“Swimps”

STR: 15
CON: 14
SIZ: 20
INT: 8
Idea: 40%
POW: 12
Luck: 60%
DEX: 15
Move: 11
SAN: n/a
HP: 17
 
Weapons: Bite 40%, 1D10; Grapple 20%
Average Damage Bonus: +1D6
Spells: None
Skills: Swim 90%; Spot Hidden 70%
SAN Loss: it costs 0/1D10 to see a Swimp

“Swimps” (as Elsa has termed them) are savage extra-dimensional creatures which live in a liquid environment (possibly something other than water). They have huge, motion-sensitive eyes and can see at a huge distance. They are attack predators, hunting singly and without the pack mentality shown by lions or wild dogs: they are entirely self-motivated and the only reason they hang around together is to try and beat the others to a kill (or to steal it if someone else beats them to it).

Despite certain surface similarities, Swimps are not fish. Their “fins” are webbed tentacles and their bodies are more or less a single huge tentacular structure with a mouth on one end. They are capable of grabbing and smothering prey with their pectoral, dorsal and tail “fins”, but they would much rather devour an object whole in order to prevent another of their kind wresting it from them.

*****

Any lights and movement in the apartment will attract the Swimps, as will any hysterical screaming or yelling. Eventually, the apartment will become encircled by the aqueous horrors, looking for a point of access. Fighting them off is problematic: underwater physics are in full-swing here, so blows with clubs and knives are slow and hard to accurately direct. Firearms, too, are badly affected; however, the loud reports will startle the Swimps and send them all fleeing for a time. Firearm activity has another beneficial effect too:

Downstairs, in the secret government laboratory (oh ho!), the sound of shooting will alarm the operators of the dangerous inter-dimensional device upon which they are working and they will immediately shut it down. Their so doing will mean that the “real” surroundings will start to solidify and, in about ten minutes’ time, the world will return to normal and the only indication that anything untoward had happened will be throbbing headaches for those involved.

Conspiracy Revealed!

While the strange effect is in place, have all participating Investigators (and Elsa – just in case) make Spot Hidden Rolls, ostensibly to spy any sneaky Swimps that might have wriggled in where they’re not needed (which is anywhere, really!). Successful rollers will spot a strange tableau through the floor beneath their feet: in the basement of the building is a bright flickering play of the strange light which is radiating from all the metallic objects and surfaces in the locality; this is stronger however, and there are shadowy people standing around it.

Three of the human-seeming figures are wearing some kind of coverall, complete with hoods and dark-lensed visors; another figure is wearing the visor but no other protection, clad in what seems to be a dapper modern suit; the fifth human is wearing nothing and, beyond a general human-ness of outline, is anything but human. This being is grey of skin, with a large bald head and long limbs in relation to its trunk; its eyes are large, almond-shaped and jet black, without pupils or irises, and its mouth is tiny. In one hand it holds what seems to be a large sea urchin with many radiating spines of scintillating and constantly-changing colours. Their combined attentions seem to be fixed upon a complex machine from which the strange flickering light is emanating.

If one of the Investigators fires a gun, all of the people downstairs will suddenly look upwards towards where the sound came from; additionally, the figure in the suit will tear off his protective visor and, if the Investigator was lucky enough to have seen him earlier with Dr. Windrush, may be recognised as the tall, bespectacled man, with dark hair and a thick moustache, with whom Windrush sat at Tony Sarg’s Oasis Lounge, the day the party first met Elsa. Instantly, he yells at the other protected figures and they rush to turn the machine off: as the light fades and the world returns to normal, the mysterious men seem to be hurriedly de-camping, tearing off protective gear, grabbing equipment and documents and making for the doors. Investigators witnessing this activity may pass it along to their confederates, however there are still dangerous Swimps to be dealt with before this avenue can be investigated.

After the Fish-Fry...

At this point it would seem particularly obtuse to state that there was no substance to Miss Sheridan’s claims: the party can now re-group and try to develop a theory about what’s been happening. Obviously, this strange effect has been occurring while Elsa has been sleeping and – luckily for her – some kind of unanticipated barrier has been keeping her safe from attack. While asleep, elements of the strange revelations have penetrated through into her dream-state and have been interpreted oddly by her sleeping mind – obviously the “droll Swimps of Saturn” are anything but the pacific beings she thought she’d encountered!

If none of the party saw the mysterious events playing out in the basement below, have them make Listen Rolls now: they suddenly hear wheels screeching and car engines racing. Looking out of the apartment window, they can see a van disappearing into the night at the top of the cul-de-sac; a large touring car stands just outside on the street and the party sees a coated figure step inside, glancing upwards as he does so, just before the car roars away. Again, those who spotted this fellow at Tony Sarg’s will recognise him again now.

There’s not much the party can do about these fleeing ciphers; in the meantime, there are characters who may be wounded, or insane, to deal with. Some party members may wish to check on the elderly couple who live in the apartment above: there’s no answer to their knocking and – if the party breaks in, or awaits police sanction – the apartment will be discovered to be unoccupied. A thick layer of dust lies over everything: two armchairs placed before a quietly-buzzing radio-set contain the slumped clothing of a man and a woman, the garments nested inside each other as if the wearers simply vanished from inside them. A similar investigation of the loft apartment will reveal a set of man’s clothes in a similar state, on the floor next to a desk, on top of which is a typewriter and a half-full scotch glass. The implication of these discoveries necessitates a SAN Roll (0/1D3).

If anyone saw the mysterious gathering below, have them make an Idea Roll: those successful will recall that Miss Sheridan’s “Martians” bear a strong resemblance to the naked grey creature watching the proceedings. Could these beings be involved somehow? And, more importantly, if she got the Swimps so wrong, what are these creatures really like?

Investigating the basement – again, legally or otherwise – will find evidence that something was going on there, but something that has been very quickly effaced. In pride of place is a concrete slab, about 10 feet by 10 feet, with large, heavy batteries attached to it by steel cables: witnesses will be able to ascertain that this is where the light-emitting machine stood recently. Nearby there is a smouldering heap of burnt paper, reeking of accelerant – a whole heap of evidence gone up in smoke. A desk and chair lie tumbled over at the base of the pneumatic-tube reception point and smashed bottles of ink add to the chaos. Other than this, several decades of clutter from previous tenants – including a disassembled buggy – have been pushed into a corner near the entrance and the whitewashed windows in an attempt to mask the activity inside.

But searching here is not entirely a waste of time. Have Investigators make their Spot Hidden Rolls: if successful, they will find some of the contents of a document file spilt some of its contents as the guilty made their exit. It includes the following information:


Firstly: a matchbook from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. This isn’t much of a clue in and of itself, but it definitely ties our mysterious moustachioed gent to that location.


Secondly: this is a page from a grant application for Government funding. It’s page 2 of a longer document, stamped and initialled “APPROVED”, and the author’s name is typed along the bottom of the leaf next to the page number – “Dr. Crawford Tillinghast”.

“...will be of immense benefit to humanity in every field of Science or Exploration.

What do we know of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have. I have always believed that such strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows, and now I believe I have found a way to break down the barriers. Within twenty-four hours the machine I have constructed will generate waves acting on unrecognised sense-organs that exist in us as atrophied or rudimentary vestiges. Those waves will open up to us many vistas unknown to man, and several unknown to anything we consider organic life. We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. We shall see these things, and other things which no breathing creature has yet seen. We shall overleap time, space, and dimensions, and without bodily motion peer to the bottom of creation.

With the assistance of Government funding and resources, further invaluable refinements...”

Thirdly: a newspaper clipping detailing a nasty incident.


The plot thickens!

To Be Continued...

Monday 30 March 2015

Back From Beyond - Part II


Miss Sheridan’s Dreams...


While undergoing the party’s experimental process, Elsa is quite willing to go over the substance of her visions. It boils down to this:


Mercurians:

“They have a language and call themselves, as nearly as we can express the name, ‘Wooptar’. Their height, or rather, their length, is approximately 14 inches. They have six legs, on which they travel with great velocity; large, round eyes and short, sharp tails, which they use with remarkable skill as weapons in combat. Their skin is of a tough, heat-resisting substance and changes colour like the chameleon.”

Venusian:

“He has a flat, pointed, shovel-like snout and an enormous belly, one phosphorous eye (made to serve in the dark) and two flat, webbed feet attached without legs to his pudgy body. Each adult is about two feet long.”


Martian:

“The Martian is a small-bodied, large-headed, hairless creature, with two long arms and two long legs. They have 10 fingers on each hand, but only one toe on each foot. Their hearing is tuned to the keenest pitch and their sight is extremely sensitive, but their sense of smell and taste is almost nil. Their 20 fingers serve to receive and transmit radio messages which are made intelligible by their keen sense of touch.”


Jupiterians:

“25ft-long creatures which slither around with heads the size of our own attached without a neck to their slippery bodies...four pairs of short, clawed legs, rudimentary eyes and small fishlike mouths which they use to eat lice from off each other.”


 Saturnians:

“The Swimps of Saturn are similar in structure to some of our own tropical fish, but of a distinctly higher mental state. Their eyes can see for miles and small, hand-shaped appendages are found on either side of their heads.”


 Uranians:

“Six feet tall with grey, elephant-like skin, they have enormous bald heads with one eye in the front and one in the back, one ear, shaped like a megaphone, directly under one eye and an abnormally long nose under the other. They have four octopus-like arms, one in the front, one in the back, and one on either side of their round, trunk-like bodies. They travel around breaking all speed records, on wheels that grow under their bodies.”


 Neptunians:

Neptune is inhabited by by beings which are all face and who live in great shells hanging down from the ice crust that covers the planet. They don’t eat but live off the fat of their own plumpy selves until they are consumed. As they are very plump, this usually takes about 165 Earth years.”

The final element of Miss Sheridan’s visionary view of the solar system is the mysterious planet “Herolit”. According to her dreams, it orbits the sun on the same trajectory as the Earth, but on the opposite side of the star. It is the home of a completely Utopian society with an ideal  world government overseeing the three continental landmasses and they are far superior – both mentally and morally – than the Earthlings. They are largely vegetarian, treating their few remaining horses and cows with great reverence.

*****

The party members may be as scathing and unaccepting of all this as they like; strangely though, Elsa seems convinced that what she’s saying is the truth: Psychology Rolls reveal that, whatever the origin of this material, she believes it to be real.

Provide the party with the following image as a reference:


Results – Expected and Otherwise...

Assuming that the experiment which the Investigators concoct takes place in a controlled environment away from Elsa’s apartment, the results will be a total negative – no dreams; no astral travelling; nada. And things will stay this way all the while that Elsa doesn’t sleep at home. If on the other hand the group feels that Elsa should be tested in her home environment and they proceed accordingly, jump ahead to the next section “Elsa Sleeps at Home”.

Disappointed by a non-result, Elsa offers to give it another try, if the party thinks that it’s warranted. As long as Elsa stays outside of her apartment however, the results will be the same. At some point the party should agree to call it quits and let Dr. Windrush know that they’ve reached a consensus about Miss Sheridan’s dream travels. If they telephone the ASPR, Windrush agrees to listen to their findings and schedules an appointment the following day at his offices in the early afternoon. Regardless of who makes the call, they will notice that the good doctor seems enormously pleased with their discoveries.

Later that evening the group receives an excited telephone call from Elsa: overnight she had another experience. She claims that she visited Uranus once more and that she obtained a clearer view of the native beings of that world, although now, she feels that they aren’t indigenous to that planet at all, but rather are explorers undertaking a serious mission there. She says that she got the wheels thing all mixed-about and that she miscounted the eyes before. Further, she claims that when she awoke her whole room was glowing with a strange light that gradually faded away. She begs the team to try their experiment again, but perhaps they could test her at her own place: maybe, she says, she needs familiar surroundings in order to dream properly.

Let the party sort this out: if they agree to examine the girl at her home they can do so that night and still make their appointment with Windrush with a result - either positive or negative – the next day. Otherwise, they can draw a line under the proceedings and end it there. In the latter event, Elsa will be bitterly disappointed, but will understand. Of course, if a romantic relationship has been established with a party member, they may decide to perform the experiment at Elsa’s place, with whomsoever of the party agrees to help out. There are plenty of opportunities in this case to cause ructions and tension within the group.

Elsa Sleeps at Home...


There are two ways that this can come about. First, if the party have decided to tell Windrush that Elsa’s stories are nonsense, regardless of Elsa calling to claim subsequent success, then they will receive an horrid shock: the late news of the following day will headline a terrible murder. Elsa’s horribly mutilated body has been found in her apartment under mysterious circumstances. If they choose to try the experiment one last time, but at Elsa’s home, they will be in a position to see what takes place and possibly save her life.

Elsa lives in a – frankly – squalid part of town, on the ground floor in an apartment block, at the end of a cul-de-sac, near an elevated train line. The basement is rented warehouse space for a manufacturing concern of some kind, with warehouse doors at the bottom of a ramp onto the street. The apartment consists of a combined kitchen and dining area, a bedroom, a bathroom and a large walk-in closet. The party may make themselves at home, set up their experiment and let Elsa get on with it.

Before going to sleep, she shows the party an amended sketch of her “Uranian explorers” – any party members who have had dealings with the Great Race of Yith, or who have read the Pnakotic Manuscripts, should make a SAN Roll (1/1D4) upon viewing the following image:


With this revelation, the party may start to think that there is something to Elsa’s dreaming after all...

Particularly thorough Investigators may have queries about the apartment and the neighbours. All they are able to discover is little more than what Elsa knows. In the apartments upstairs live an elderly couple who rarely go out, while the loft at the top of the building is occupied by a young man who, Elsa thinks, is “something in the writing line, possibly a journalist” and often away for long stretches, as he is at present. The basement of the building is used as storage by some manufacturing business: Elsa has sometimes heard deliveries being made after hours but what bothers her most are the pneumatic tubes which the business installed for communication and which run across the outside of her bedroom wall. Sometimes at night, she hears the thudding of the message cylinders as they negotiate the bends and descend to the basement. Other than this, the Investigators will note that the elevated train (or “El”) goes by at the end of Elsa’s cul-de-sac, running past her bedroom wall, and, between her home and the train-tracks is, a telegraph wire. Whether all or any of these phenomena are the cause of her visions is up to the Investigators to determine.

As the experiment begins, it is necessary to determine who is where within the flat. Propriety dictates that any male party members should not be in the bedroom with Elsa (romantic leanings or not!); female Investigators will be allowed to stay as observers in the bedroom without any trouble. Setting up equipment will allow the group to gain some familiarity with the apartment’s layout.

For about an hour after Elsa goes to sleep, nothing of any note appears to take place. Then, the party will need to make Spot Hidden Rolls: those who succeed will note that a strange glow is beginning to manifest about the apartment, concentrating like a shimmering mist about certain locations. At first the glow is a faint purplish colour; then it lightens to lilac and then violet. Finally, it becomes a colour which is simply indescribable. In the kitchen, it clings to the stove and its flue pipes, the sink and its pipes, the ice-box and the fire-ladder outside the window. In the bedroom, the glow concentrates around the back fire-ladder, the telegraph lines, the pneumatic pipes and, more faintly, the train tracks of the El: most interestingly, these objects can be seen through the walls of the darkened room, along with the glowing objects in the kitchen. Curious Investigators will also trace this phenomenon to the pipes of the bathroom, which form a tracery of glowing lines out to the rear of the building. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the apartment become vague and hazy – it is now possible to see clearly straight through them. Elsa begins to mutter and moan, tossing her head on the pillow. Then things start to get really strange...

To be continued...

Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt (1795-1840)


Born in Cologne to parents Ava and Heinrich von Junzt, Friedrich von Junzt entered university in Berlin in 1814. While there, he met his later publisher, Gottfried Mülder, and, after their graduation, they travelled through many parts of Asia – especially the Chinese interior - before returning to Europe. The duo split up and reunited many times while based there and Mülder was aware that von Junzt encountered many strange and dangerous things to which, at the time, he paid little attention, involved as he was with his own researches. Upon their return to Europe, Mülder established a publishing house, but von Junzt returned to academia, publishing his doctoral thesis before removing to Wurttemburg where he took up a teaching position for four years.

*****

Der Ursprung und Einfluss der Semantic Magische Texte”

This first paper by von Junzt discusses a type of steganographic hiding of information in grimoires and other magical texts. Specifically, it examines the Books of Moses and the French editions of Le Dragon Rouge and the Poulets Noire and, while not denying that their surreptitious re-printings have watered down whatever effectiveness they might have had, claims that their sequential numbers and symbolic titles may have formed a cipher which, if broken or interpreted correctly, might be the pathway to greater revelations. In effect, he theorises that certain ‘books of power’ exist as parts of a greater whole and, if read in concert reveal much more that the sum of their parts. Interestingly, he touches upon the Codex Spitalski and the Codex Maleficium, claiming that they too might be similarly linked.


German; “ Der Ursprung und Einfluss der Semantic Magische Texte (The Origin and Influence of Semantic Magical Texts)”; Friedrich von Junzt; 1819; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****


The years which von Junzt spent at Wurttemburg were not ones which he found particularly fulfilling. Feeling confined by the limits of academia, he left his position in 1823 and began to travel widely, first through Europe, then on to Asia and the Americas. While doing so, he investigated many secret and occult societies, learning of their practises and ambitions. While so occupied in Paris in 1825, he encountered Alexis Ladeau and the two became firm friends. They travelled to New York together and set up headquarters from which to continue their research.

Whilst there, von Junzt published a further two monographs examining the roots of two common legend cycles in world mythology and linking them to atavistic impulses latent in humanity.

*****

Les Vampires”

Other writers have approached this topic with the result that they simply catalogue various myth cycles, reported incidents and sources, fictional and allegedly otherwise. Not so, with von Junzt. He theorises that vampirism may well be a deep atavistic impulse within humanity and that certain circumstances drive this motivation to the surface: in essence, vampirism as a physical response to environmental stimuli. He theorises that this latent urge is a relict holdover from encounters with extinct beings that expressed this pattern of behaviour, or somehow instilled it – for reasons unknown – into the humans of the time. As well, he argues that the traditional responses to vampiric behaviour are also linked to instinctual knowledge of how to dispense with these blood-sucking beings, derived from a distant time when human beings overthrew these monstrous creatures.

The monograph received a mixed reception at its presentation with many commentators feeling that von Junzt established a solid premise but then let it get away from him.


French; “Les Vampires”; Friedrich von Junzt; 1827; 0/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

 “Les Lupines”

Following on from the groundwork established by “Les Vampires”, von Junzt examines the werewolf phenomenon, again linking the expression of lycanthropy to latent impulses lying dormant in the human psyche. He cites many sources, particularly French court records of werewolf activity in the 17th and 18th Centuries and touches briefly on references to Les Cultes des Goules. Through discussion of Indian myth cycles he posits a rabies-like illness as the basis of lycanthropic behaviour and theorises that ancient entities may have created this disease as a means of instilling werewolf-like behaviour in early humans – for reasons unknown. This paper received a marginally better reception than his previous effort.

Interestingly, years later in the 1960s, Britain’s Ultimate Press pirated the contents of these two monographs, turning them into schlocky horror magazines for the masses, accompanied with lurid and titillating photographs.


French; “Les Lupines”; Friedrich von Junzt; 1828; 0/1d2 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****


Alexis Ladeau, c.1828

In February of 1829, Alexis Ladeau contracted malaria whilst the two were investigating cult activity in the Florida Everglades region and he was forced to return home to Europe. Von Junzt continued his efforts, pushing through from Florida to Louisiana then south through Mexico and into South America. Not much is known of his movements at this time (other than what is hinted at in his later writings) but he showed up unexpectedly in Düsseldorf at the new printing house of Gottfried Mülder around 1835. At that time, the two of them decided to write and publish the burgeoning catalogue of cult and other secret activities which von Junzt had been collecting in his travels. Von Junzt then returned to Cologne, to his family’s home which he had inherited, and began work; he contacted Alexis Ladeau to come and stay with him and to provide services as his amanuensis while the magnum opus took form.


Late in 1836, von Junzt declared the work – which he entitled Das Buch von den unaussprechlichen Kulten – finished. Upon receipt of the galley proofs from Mülder, he caught a train to St. Petersburg, there to perform the final edit. In March of 1837, Mülder travelled to St. Petersburg to collect the final emendations. After reading it, he told von Junzt that he would “sit on the manuscript for awhile”, citing no particular reason for the delay. However, while there, he contracted von Junzt to write a second book, a task which von Junzt happily agreed to. Several days later, von Junzt set forth on a journey east towards Mongolia and Mülder subsequently returned to Germany.

In 1839, Mülder announced the release of Unaussprechlichen Kulten (as it would soon become known). Due to von Junzt’s absence, Mülder wrote the Introduction himself. The quarto binding of this first edition was in heavy, black full-calf with scarlet marker ribbons and two metal hasps – a feature considered somewhat ‘antique’ at this time but which Mülder might well have thought highlighted the ‘dangerous’ nature of the work. It is probably for similar reasons that he engaged the troubled artist Gunther Hasse to prepare the lugubrious plates which accompanied the text.

*****

Das Buch von den unaussprechlichen Kulten (aka “The Black Book”)


The Frontispiece Portrait of von Junzt
From the First Edition

I happened to spy the title that day and bought the book for a ridiculously small sum. Certainly small compared to the price I’ve paid for reading it.”

-Robert M. Price, “Dope War of the Black Tong”

The text deals with the traditions of cult patterns around the world and touches upon such well-known phenomena as the Thugs and the African Leopard cults. A weighty central section prefaced by an essay entitled ‘Narrative of the Elder World’, deals with the worldwide Cthulhu Cult, the Tcho-tcho peoples and their diaspora, the cults of Leng and Ghatanathoa and the People of the Black Stone. In places von Junzt’s masterful, precise prose breaks down and he dwells ramblingly upon seemingly meaningless tangents such as the uses of unicorn horns and his supposed sojourn in Hell; the faithful reader will not let such meanderings distract them from the multitude of other useful insights to be found. In fact, given that von Junzt's first academic paper was about the steganographic processes of hiding information within seemingly "worthless" magical texts, the erstwhile reader will not lightly dismiss anything contained within a complete version of this work.

There are relics of ancient cities supposedly reared before the rise of man, black stones of impossible antiquity carved with the language of a race (or races) either extinct or in hiding in the darkest corners of the world. The black stone monolith that broods in the mountains of Hungary is but one; the geographer Solinus has written of another, the Ixaxar, the hieroglyphed ebon worship-stone of an aboriginal race found in the deserts of Libya. These black fragments, keys to secrets lost to civilised man, are yet worshiped by those who remember the great cities of which they once were part...”

-Kevin A. Ross, Sacraments of Evil: “Plant Y Daear”

The writing style of the “Black Book” varies considerably. At its most lucid it reads much like the ultimate square trying to describe the Summer of Love, nailing down observations with a gimlet eye and worried that if anything is missed or overlooked, it might well be crucial to a full understanding of the phenomena being observed. On the other hand, von Junzt can be irritatingly obtuse, reverting to broad hints and obscure references, as if at certain points he becomes too afraid to speak plainly of what he knows, or as if he suddenly starts talking to a subset of readers with an assumed wealth of knowledge. At other times, he rambles and follows murky tangents with no seeming relevance, often hammering meaningless points or glossing over what seems to be crucial information. Many early reviewers dismissed the work as the ravings of a lunatic, and yet familiarity with the work often reveals a kind of lurking internal logic.

The subject matter of the book concerns the dark cults and objects of worship which von Junzt encountered during his travels. It references Lion and Leopard Cults in Africa, secret societies and tongs in China, Rosicrucian and other Freemasonic sects in Europe and the Americas and goes on to talk of even stranger groups: the pervasive Bran cult, the Thugs and Dacoits of India, murderous Incan and Aztec Sun Sects, before beginning to discuss manifestations of the Great Old Ones and their worship across the planet.

Such discussions often reference mysterious “keys” but this issue is never quite pinned down within the text. Just what these keys are and what they give access to is not mentioned, although one of the “keys” is supposedly a black stone near Stregoicavar in Hungary. Another “key” is a jewel which hangs from the neck of a mummy within a temple in the Honduran jungle. The text reveals that the “key” grants access to a treasure of some kind, but the Düsseldorf first edition suggests that the treasure might be of a metaphysical rather than a literal nature. The Bridewall edition mistakenly gives the location of the temple as Guatemala and doesn’t mention to what the key gives access, while the Golden Goblin edition fails to mention the mummy and specifically discusses “treasure”.

An excellent example of [evil Pictish groups] is that from near Loch Mullardoch, in Scotland. These Picts worshipped the being known as the Daemon Sultan, but, as in some other locations, the Picts did not perform this worship unbidden by beings of an older and more malign species. Indeed, I know for a fact that these remnants from the days of pre-human reptiles even now walk the Earth.

Another place where such beings may lurk is in North America, where the Great Old Ones were worshipped long before the times of Columbus. I am here thinking specifically of those locations now held by the Spanish in California”

-John Scott Clegg, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth: “The Coven of Cannich”

Much time is spent in talking about hidden dimensions - “unseen worlds” – which press in upon our own and the tendency of the barriers between these worlds to sometime breach, admitting entities and knowledge from beyond. It might be these other realities to which the “keys” grant access, but the link between the two is only implicitly stated, if at all.

A large part of the text concerns itself with discussion of an age of history which predates recorded history. Von Junzt calls it the “Hyborian Age”. He claims it is the time when such legendary places as Mu, Lemuria and Atlantis existed and he speaks of these places with some specificity. While so doing, he mentions the Scroll of T’yog, a crucial prop in the Muvian saga of the warring between the temples of Shub-Niggurath and Ghatanathoa in that land. Purported actual portions of the Scroll are reproduced in facsimile within the text. Von Junzt talks about the conquests of the Hyborians, their sacking of Atlantis and Lemuria and their repeated unsuccessful attempts to sack Stygia, a fabled land once located where Egypt is nowadays. Finally he discusses how a Nordic race from the northern lands eventually conquered Stygia and the Hyborians, bringing their age to an end.

Nyarlathotep is mentioned briefly in the text as well and is described as being adorned with tentacles; it’s possible that von Junzt was unaware of the endless multiform avatars of this entity.

In summing up, Das Buch von den unaussprechlichen Kulten is an overflowing catalogue of cult activity at the end of the Victorian Age and into the early Twentieth Century. It is a book to be persevered with and pored over in order to get to grips with its subject matter, but it will repay erstwhile Investigators who plumb the darker depths of cult activity.

(Source: Children of the Night, Robert E. Howard)

German: Das Buch von den unaussprechlichen Kulten; Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt, Introduction by Gottfried Mülder, illustrated by Gunther Hasse; Düsseldorf, 1839; Sanity Loss: 1d8/2d8; +15 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 52 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: “Addresse Zhar” (Contact Deity / Zhar); “Annäherungs-Bruder” (Contact Ghoul); “Sperre von Naach-Tith” (Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Winken Sie dem großen zu” (Contact Dagon); “Anruf-Äther-Teufel” (Contact Mi-Go); “Benennen Sie weiter den Sun” (Call / Dismiss Azathoth); “Bennenen Sie weiter Cyaegha” (Call / Dismiss Cyaegha); “Rufen Sie weiter den gehörnten Mann an” (Call / Dismiss Nyarlathotep); “Benennen Sie weiter das, das nicht sein sollte” (Call / Dismiss Nyogtha); “Rufen Sie weiter die Waldgöttin an” (Call / Dismiss Shub-Niggurath); “Befehl Aeriereisende” (Summon / Bind Byakhee); “Befehlen Sie die Bäume” (Summon / Bind Dark Young); “Beherrschen Sie das Unbekannte” (Call / Dismiss Ghatanathoa); “In Verbindung treten Sie mit den Kindern vom tiefen” (Contact Deep Ones); “Wiederherstellung zum Leben” (Resurrection); “Nahrung des Lebens” (Food of Life)

*****


According to his normal practice, von Junzt returned unexpectedly to Düsseldorf from Mongolia in 1840, and contacted Mülder, telling him that he had prepared a draft of the second book which he had agreed to write. Mülder, in turn, contacted Ladeau in Cologne, and made him aware of his friend’s return.

Ladeau made his way directly to von Junzt’s hotel but was unable to obtain a response from his room. Finally, hotel staff and police forced the door only to find von Junzt strangled to death inside and surrounded by the scattered remnants of his new manuscript. It was ominously noted that all of the windows of the room had been locked and bolted from the inside, a practise which the paranoid von Junzt always adopted, even using his own padlocks where he felt the security was insufficient to his needs.

In the days that followed, Mülder received many queries from those who had purchased Unaussprechlichen Kulten, asking if there was some link between the book and its author’s terrible demise. Despite reassurances to the contrary, many of those who had bought it, later destroyed it in a superstitious frenzy. In the next few weeks a government investigation followed and the book was placed on a list of banned titles and its further publication proscribed.

In the meantime, Ladeau returned to Cologne and the von Junzt estate and began to re-organise the manuscript found in von Junzt’s hotel room. However, upon completing this task and reading the text, he threw it into the fireplace and slit his throat with a straight razor. This subsequent death did nothing to reassure authorities or prevent Unaussprechlichen Kulten from being banned and burned. The taint ascribed to the work extended as far as Gottfried Mülder himself as his business failed and he was declared bankrupt within the space of a year.

That might have been the end of the book but for the fact that a Jesuit priest, Pierre Sansrire, translated a copy into French and had it published in St. Malo, in 1843. This was, again, a short run edition and no known copies of this version have survived, probably due to intervention by the Catholic Church.

*****

French: Le Livre Noir des Cultes Indescriptibles; translation by Pere Pierre Sansrire; St. Malo, France, 1843; Sanity Loss: 1d8/2d8; +12 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 48 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: “Entrez en contact avec Zhar” (Contact Deity / Zhar); “Goule de contact” (Contact Ghoul); “Barrière de Naach-Tith” (Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Contactez le Mer-Père” (Contact Dagon); “Diable d'éther de contact” (Contact Mi-Go); “Rassemblez le Sun” (Call / Dismiss Azathoth); “Rassemblez Cyaegha” (Call / Dismiss Cyaegha); “Appelez l'Homme à Cornes” (Call / Dismiss Nyarlathotep); “Rassemblez la Chose qui ne devrait pas être” (Call / Dismiss Nyogtha); “Appelez la Mère de Terre” (Call / Dismiss Shub-Niggurath); “Appelez les Démons de Vol” (Summon / Bind Byakhee); “Rassemblez les Arbres de Marche” (Summon / Bind Dark Young); “Appelez Dieu de Gorgon” (Call / Dismiss Ghatanathoa); “Entretien aux Enfants des Profondeurs” (Contact Deep Ones); “Reconstituez les Morts à la Vie” (Resurrection); “La Nourriture de la Vie” (Food of Life)

*****

What is known, however, is that unscrupulous British bookseller, M.A.G. Bridewall, bought a copy of the St. Malo edition in a London bookstore and found it so scandalous that he had it broken up, turned into English by several translators, and published under his own imprint. This quarto volume was re-titled ‘Nameless Cults’ and was released in 1845. It was a poorly presented production, riddled with mistakes and errors (due to the quality of the translators and the fact that they were unaware of each others’ efforts) and marred by the presence of lurid, randomly-sourced woodcut illustrations with little relevance to the text.

*****

English: Nameless Cults; unauthorised translation published by M.A.G. Bridewall; Unknown translator(s); London, 1845; Sanity Loss: 1d8/2d8; +12 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 48 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: As per Unaussprechlichen Kulten, but most of the spells are either incomplete or faulty; Roll POWx2 to discover a working version of a particular spell

*****

In 1909, the Golden Goblin Press of New York issued a new translation into English from the German original (unfortunately maintaining the Bridewall variant of the title), complete with full-colour plates redrawn from the Hasse originals by Diego Velasquez. Unfortunately, the editors saw fit to expurgate fully one quarter of the text and the final result was so expensive as to render it largely inaccessible to the general public. In the same year, the Starry Wisdom Press is said to have released its own translation but copies have never been located. The Miskatonic University Press has often come forward with plans to reissue the work in a scholarly edition, complete with annotations and accompanying essays, but the heirs of the von Junzt estate have repeatedly refused to give permission for another printing.

*****

English: Nameless Cults; Expurgated translation of the German edition issued by Golden Goblin Press; Unknown translator; New York, 1909; Sanity Loss: 1d8/2d8; +9 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 30 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: None

*****

After von Junzt’s departure to St. Petersburg, Alexis Ladeau began writing an account of his life with the explorer, detailing their time together from their meeting in Paris to his forced return from America to recuperate from his malaise. This manuscript was included as part of the von Junzt estate and was discovered by valuers, called in by the inheritors to determine the property’s total worth. It’s not known exactly how M.A.G. Bridewall came into possession of the manuscript, however his publishing outfit issued it in the year after the release of their Nameless Cults (a terrible mistranslation of the title), no doubt hoping to heighten the excitement caused by that publication. The von Junzt estate sought an injunction against Bridewall to prevent publication of any further material by von Junzt; however, as Ladeau was the author of this work and not von Junzt, the order was quickly beaten down by the British courts. Regardless, it was banned by German law and no translation into the German tongue currently exists.

*****

Reminiscences of Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt


Reading what Von Junzt dared put in print arouses uneasy speculations as to what it was that he dared not tell. What dark matters, for instance, were contained in those closely written pages that formed the unpublished manuscript on which he worked unceasingly for months before his death, and which lay torn and scattered all over the floor of the locked and bolted chamber in which Von Junzt was found dead with the marks of taloned fingers on his throat?”

-Robert E. Howard, “The Black Stone”

English; Reminiscences of Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt; Alexis Ladeau; M.A.G. Bridewall, London, 1846; 0/1d2 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 2 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****


Bankrupt and down on his luck, Gottfried Mülder relocated to Leipzig, looking for a way to turn his life around. An encounter with a fellow publisher got him thinking about the time he spent with von Junzt in China after their graduation. Mülder had been intent upon his own explorations, researching the history and methods of printing in China, and had not paid particular attention to von Junzt’s activities: von Junzt had spoken at length of the wonders which he had encountered but Mülder had paid them about as much attention as von Junzt had lent his own discoveries – that is, very little. Urged on by the publisher, Mülder agreed to re-visit that period by means of hypnosis and, over many sessions, a manuscript was developed which promised to be as sensational as anything to have come directly from von Junzt’s pen. Mülder published these as The Secret Mysteries of Asia. Unfortunately, largely due to German economic interests in China at the time, most of the print run was seized and destroyed soon after publication. Several copies, along with those in the possession of Mülder himself, escaped destruction, mainly by virtue of having been mailed to the author’s colleagues and associates for academic review.

*****

The Secret Mysteries of Asia, with a Commentary on the Ghorl Nigral

The sessions of hypnosis revealed that von Junzt had claimed to have found his way to a supposedly mythical kingdom named Yian-Ho in the heart of western China. He claimed that the people who dwelt there headed a secret organisation, a cult of worshippers, dedicated to an alien god, with tentacles stretching across the planet. While there, he was permitted to look upon a forbidden text, the Ghorl Nigral or Book of Night, and to uncover it secrets. This is a very similar set of circumstances to those surrounding Madame Blavatsky’s introduction to the Book of Dzyan.

The Ghorl Nigral is a grimoire written by an alien wizard named Zkauba from a planet called Yaddith. It tells of Zkauba’s efforts – along with his fellow practitioners – to save his planet from destruction due to an infestation of Dholes. In this regard he was unsuccessful and was forced to use his “light envelope” to escape alive. The book contains much information about the despicable Dholes and has spells which are effective against them: one of those spells is included in this commentary. This material might well be thought of as delusional ravings on von Junzt’s part (as remembered by Mülder), however mention of the Ghorl Nigral, along with a discussion of its contents, is also contained within The Book of Eibon.

The rest of the Secret Mysteries talks about the ancient secretive cult based in China and discusses its organisation, operations and ultimate goals. Much is speculative on von Junzt’s part – as relayed through Mülder – and the picture is vague and incomplete, but there is a discussion of many Chinese secret societies, the Tcho-tcho peoples and their magical abilities, and the level to which they are able to infiltrate and co-opt political and other organisations across the globe.

Until fairly recently, a private press re-printing of the Secret Mysteries residing in the Library at Miskatonic University was thought to be a copy of the Ghorl Nigral itself: the cataloguing has now been corrected.

(Source: Lovecraft at Last, Willis Conover & H. P. Lovecraft)

German; The Secret Mysteries of Asia, with a Commentary on the Ghorl Nigral; Gottfried Mülder; Leipzig, 1847; Sanity loss: 1d4/1d8; +7 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 16 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Glass from Leng; Liao Drug; Command Dhole; All of the T’ai p’ing t’ao

*****

In 1848, eight years after his death, most people would be forgiven for thinking that the works of Friedrich von Junzt had been exhausted. However, in the winter of that year, a small publishing house in Ingolstadt in German Bavaria quietly issued a further work – the purported translation by von Junzt of the hellish Necronomicon itself. The books were printed in a short run and mailed to a list of subscribers in an attempt to keep the entire operation quiet; however, a zealous customs official unearthed an unclaimed parcel and traced the contraband book to its source. The raid upon the publisher was too late and the original manuscript was burnt before the government could lay claim to it. The publishers confessed to printing the book but swore that, while the work had been written by von Junzt, it was not the proscribed Unaussprechlichen Kulten, but another work which they had received anonymously through the mail. They were able to provide the envelope in which it had arrived at their premises and it was noted that the address had been written upon it in Cyrillic characters.

There are those who say that this manuscript was a duplicate of the one which Ladeau read and destroyed after von Junzt’s death; others say that Ladeau’s manuscript was unique, and that, further, it wasn’t destroyed but rather buried with him. Certainly several attempts to desecrate his grave have taken place, and an exhumation order was carried out by the Nazis during World War Two, although whether it revealed anything has never been determined.

*****

Necronomicon, das Verichteraraberbuch

It seems only too reasonable to assume that someone who spent so much of their time shining bright lights into the darkest corners of religious belief would encounter the Necronomicon at some stage or other. Von Junzt, much like George Angell and Francis Wayland Thurston in the decades after him, discerned a unity of cultish devotion connecting many disparate and unevolved communities worldwide and drew the inference that a global fraternity was at work.

Unlike Angell and Thurston, von Junzt stumbled early onto the Necronomicom and, rather than trying to connect confused and wide-ranging phenomena back to a nebulous source, determined that the Necronomicon was the source and then used it to track its various dark expressions out across the face of the planet. In this sense, the Necronomicon was a major tool in the construction of his own sanity-wrenching work, Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

The original manuscript having been destroyed, the certainty of von Junzt’s authorship is open to debate. Many sensational and lurid works have appeared across the globe since von Junzt’s death, spuriously attributed to him with an eye to garnering sales, and not all of them published by Bridewall, or Ultimate Press. In favour of the attribution is the fact that much of the material presented in this volume is cross-referenced with Unaussprechlichen Kulten, demonstrating the validity of von Junzt’s thesis: in biological terms, he seems to argue that the Necronomicon is the genotype, or code, for cult activity across the planet, while Unaussprechlichen Kulten is its phenotype, or expression.

There are no spells presented in this work, although von Junzt (if he is the author) lists what magical procedures occur and also their expected effects. The rest of the material lines up fairly accurately with what is known of the Necronomicon’s dark contents.

German; Necronomicon, das Verichteraraberbuch; Friedrich von Junzt (attrib.); Ingolstadt, Bavaria, 1848; Sanity Loss: 1d10/2d8; +10 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 40 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: None

*****